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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24301987">Her Arm for Him to Hold</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaulaMcG/pseuds/PaulaMcG'>PaulaMcG</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Four Shapeshifters [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Concerts, F/M, Food, HP Het Minifest 2020, Kissing, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Marriage Proposal, Meeting the Parents, Music, Picnics, Pining, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:28:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,500</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24301987</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaulaMcG/pseuds/PaulaMcG</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice wants to be an Auror and a wife, and takes the matters into her own hands.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Four Shapeshifters [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2219598</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Her Arm for Him to Hold</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was written for HP Het Minifest 2020 and posted also to the community on Dreamwidth and Live Journal. Thank you, my amazing beta Liseuse!<br/>Alice and her friends won't help me make any money.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“He’s not my fiancé!” Now Alice has waved her wand too abruptly, and the tea mug hastens to the kitchen table and would topple over if Remus didn’t seize it. </p><p>Remus must hear the brusque tone in her voice and suspect that her impatience is related to his sleepover. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I should get going.”</p><p>“No, no!” Alice shakes her head vigorously and feels her curls loosening from the elaborate chignon she invented while waiting for one of the men to wake up. “I’m sorry. Lucky I hadn’t filled the cup and didn’t burn your hand.”</p><p>While pouring the tea, she focuses on the pleasure of Remus’s presence, and says sincerely, “It’s lovely to have company at breakfast. Frank always sleeps late. And later still when he’s partied with the Montrose Magpies. I think he drinks too much to forget he misses playing professionally.”</p><p>“Maybe. I know I drank too much because your pink cocktails and wine were excellent.”</p><p>She pushes the big plate closer to Remus, who doesn’t look hungover at all – not like he’s passed out last night – just rested and fed, unlike when he arrived at the dinner party. “All the eggs are for you. I’ll fry more when he gets up.”</p><p>Watching Remus eat should wipe away the rest of the irritation caused by his remark that he didn’t want to intrude on her and her fiancé’s morning routines. She never stays upset for long, and speaking her mind helps. This time some long-term frustration remains.</p><p>She tries to erase it with further honest babbling. “Frank and I have so much in common now that we’re Auror trainees, and he talks less about Quidditch. He’s happy to play home here with me whenever Lily’s on a Curse-Breaker mission. But no matter how obvious hints I drop, he never…”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course I want to meet your mother.” Alice directs her wand at the nape of her neck so as to insert the hair sticks. They’re just the right shade to suit the pretty but traditional robes she’s chosen. No flicked-out hairstyle or short Muggle dress today. “We’ve been dating ever since I left Hogwarts. For almost two years!”</p><p>“Really?” Frank’s never been a man with many words, and now his single word makes the two of them burst into laughter at the moment when their eyes meet through the mirror.</p><p>This is just how Alice loves him. They complement each other perfectly. At fourteen she idolised him, the tall and manly Gryffindor Quidditch captain and Head Boy.</p><p>She swirls around and kisses his neck, breathing in the musky aftershave. With her favourite high heels on, she’s just ideally shorter than him. When he bends his head, she parts her lips, inviting his tongue to play with hers. But this evening and tomorrow are going to be special, and her heart and mind are so full that she can’t focus purely on the sensual pleasure.   </p><p>When he’d left school, there was more than a grain of truth behind her joking with Amelia – who, too, found no boyfriend after Remus fell for Sirius – that they were pining for Frank. Alice seduced him right here at her and Lily’s housewarming party, when James had fortunately brought along his old Quidditch mates. That was when she discovered both Frank’s sense of humour and his political stance – as firmly against the pureblood ideology as the Marauders’, although he still trusts the Ministry more than they do (while particularly Remus must have some reasons of his own, which Amelia won’t reveal).</p><p>Frank was supportive when hearing that Alice had followed James and Sirius’s example and applied for the Auror training – and easily swayed to join her when, having failed, she decided to apply again. He’s proud his woman will have a career traditionally reserved for wizards. But she wants to be also a wife, and she’d prefer being proposed to on one knee with roses and a diamond ring.</p><p>At kissing Frank’s excellent, and Alice knows his mind doesn’t wander anywhere except under her robes. You can’t have everything, and perhaps you can have more if you take… or if you give more. Take some matters into your own hands.</p><p>Cupping her hands around his dear face, she stops him from inching down towards her cleavage, which isn’t easily accessed in this attire. “Don’t try to distract me. We’ll continue with this later tonight. Now let’s not keep your mum waiting!”</p><p> </p><p>Frank’s visited his mother rarely, claiming that this is the only way for him to be an independent adult. Alice is prepared for being introduced to someone intimidating – but determined to stick to her plan. If rejected, she’ll be just more clearly the dominant one. Having Apparated at Frank’s side to his mother’s porch, she lets go of his arm, then offers her arm for him to hold. He takes it, joining in her chuckle, without knowing how crucial the role reversal is tonight.</p><p>At that moment the door opens. Augusta Longbottom stands further in the hall, but the spring evening light falls on her handsome figure beautifully. She tilts her head, measures the pair of them, and nods her approval. “Finally I can make friends with the young witch who wants to become an Auror.”</p><p>Alice likes her immediately and now looks forward to the moment she’ll ask to share alone with her.</p><p> </p><p>The saxophone and the discordant, penetrating female voice have reached from the stage across the sodden park and filled Alice and some others in her Gryffindor gang with nervous energy.</p><p>Amelia clasps her hand, shaking. “This music…”</p><p>“I know. You love beautiful voices. Punk must hurt your ears.”</p><p>“No! I’ve just realised what I love,” Amelia says. “She’s amazing.”</p><p>This makes Alice curious, but now Frank’s wrapping his arms around her. She’s pleased to see that he’s acting like a gentleman and hardly leaving anything to be complained about. Having stood the rally placard (JUST JUSTICE – FREEDOM FOR THE LIKES OF YOU) against the tree trunk, he’s spread his raincape on the lawn, and now he pulls Alice to sit down on his lap.</p><p>She’s ever more confident in her choice. “I love you,” she says into his enticing mouth, and she receives his constant reply through all her senses.</p><p>The two of them desire and also take care of each other. And Frank’s so loyal. When the end of this horrendously cold and rainy April has finally brought improving weather, he must have been tempted to go flying, if not hitting Bludgers, but Rock Against Racism – like marching against You-Know-Who while siding with Muggle brothers and sisters, he says – and his promise to Sirius, who invited them all, are more important.</p><p>Now Alice allows Frank to slip his hand, under the shelter of her scarf, down her generous neckline. Their caresses follow the lilting rhythms of some new exotic music, and she closes her eyes. But Lily’s laughter next to her ear and the smell of sausage and alcohol jolt her aware of an offer a single Scotch egg and a bottle of Firecider for the two of them.</p><p>“Come on, Lily!” James protests. “There’s a lot of picnic food in my backpack.” And he adds, “All prepared by me – so that Lily should see I’m fully trained to be a husband.” </p><p>“They’ll have more fun sharing.”</p><p>“Yes, let’s feed each other like at Lily’s welcoming and farewell party!” Alice takes the sausage-wrapped egg and offers it for Frank to take a bite. “Remember, when she fooled us and said the Syrian way was like this, not just eating without forks.”</p><p>“Look!” Peter shouts. “The sun’s come out, and now Moony’s rising.”</p><p>Remus is climbing a tree. What the…! Amelia’s said they had dates in the woods, once up on a branch. He wants Sirius up there to be somehow alone with him, but is he also giving Alice an idea for a special way of completing the plan they made?</p><p>Resting her head on Frank’s thighs while he’s feeding a coronation chicken sandwich to her, she shifts her gaze from his handsome face up towards Remus, and catches him kissing the mouth of the bottle he’s just received from Sirius.</p><p>And now her attention is drawn back up by Sirius’s impatient voice. “We must get closer to the stage.”</p><p>Eager to also see and not only hear his favourite, Tom Robinson Band, of course, he hurries to descend, and Remus, having stuffed his mouth with the rest of a jam tart, jumps down.</p><p>“Can you climb that tree?” Alice only needs to jerk her head to make Frank start fulfilling this wish.</p><p>Frank’s less agile than Remus, but his height is an advantage, and he helps Alice. When he’s reached the second branch, and Alice is kneeling on the lowest one, holding his hand, she breathes deep and focuses on the bliss of their very own romantic ceremony.</p><p>“I’ve asked your mother, and now I’m asking you...”</p><p>“Really?”</p><p>“Will you marry me?”</p><p>“Yes. Really!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The rally and concert to which Sirius invited his friends was Carnival Against the Nazis, organised by Rock Against Racism and Anti Nazi League. At Victoria Park on the 30th of April 1978, Alice first listened to Poly Styrene singing in X-Ray Spex, then to some root reggae by Steel Pulse. The rally placard was inspired by Power in the Darkness by the Tom Robinson Band – or the other way round, as the album was released only in May 1978.<br/>All my fanfiction follows only Rowling’s first five novels, and my Marauders as well as Alice and Amelia Bones left Hogwarts in 1976, Frank three years earlier.<br/>The prompt was: <i>Fed up with waiting and against all her principles, she takes charge and proposes to him!</i></p></blockquote></div></div>
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